Jamiel brother scrutinizes 1978 murder

WARREN, RI (WPRI) - Two months shy of 35 years since the murder of his oldest brother, Morphis Jamiel offered a painful perspective into the unsolved crime that shattered one of Warren's most prominent families and shook up the entire town.

”It set me back a little bit. It’s personal. It’s family,” 91-year-old Mo Jamiel said, looking down at a dusty scrap book filled with documents and yellowed newspaper clippings. “He was a good man.”

• Timeline: Murder of Amon Jamiel

Mo Jamiel, a former state senator and representative who survived the Battle of the Bulge, had just retired as Warren’s probate judge when he talked with Target 12. He passed away in his sleep, two weeks after reflecting back on the March 19,1978 murder of the oldest of his seven brothers and five sisters. 

“Eleven times they shot him in the bathtub,” Jamiel said, his voice trailing off as his usually friendly face became stern. “Son of a bitch. One wasn't enough? You had to do 11?”

Police said 10 bullets pierced the shooter’s target with six of them hitting the Warren businessman in the face.

“Very personal,” Jamiel said. “We know it had to be someone who was really bitter, someone who knew him.”

Jamiel said he had not talked publicly about the murder since a 1988 interview with the late Jack White of Target 12, 10 years after the homicide.

Warren Police Department Lieutenant Roland Brule, who's now in charge of the cold case, still hears from witnesses and Jamiel family members about the unsolved crime.

“They provide me with information and updated statements,” Lt. Brule says. “They say, hey you know, now that I look back at it, this may be important.”

Lt. Brule says within the past year, he was contacted by Rhode Island State Police about a potential lead.

“The State Police detective and I did go out and do a follow up,” Lt. Brule says. “Nothing came of it.”

In the 1960s and 1970s in Warren, Amon Jamiel was considered the ‘Unofficial Mayor’ of the town. He owned The House Of A Million Items which was up the street from Jamiel’s Shoe World in a town that was also home to an accounting office and insurance agency with the name Jamiel on them. And there was Jamiel’s Park and Mo Jamiel’s law practice.

“I was working here,” Jamiel said, gesturing to his cluttered office. “And the chief of police called me and said, come on over, your brother's in trouble.”

Warren Police said Amon Jamiel went home around 5 p.m. on the Sunday evening of the shooting. His body was discovered four hours later by his wife Marcelle and oldest son Jonathan, who called 911.

“Would you help me, please?” Jonathan Jamiel asked the dispatcher. “Would you send someone to 33 Miller Street, please? Come, please. Hurry”

33 Miller Street, which is still home to Jonathan Jamiel, was a few block’s from Mo Jamiel’s office.

“I saw him lying in the tub, blood all over him,” Jamiel said. “And his family was downstairs and the police were in the house.”

Jamiel was among the first to criticize how Warren police secured the crime scene. Police acknowledged that Amon Jamiel’s wife cleaned the bathtub the day after the shooting.

“They allowed too many people in there,” Mo Jamiel said, shaking his head.

In the moments after the murder, police would connect the crime to a fire that destroyed The House of A Million Items six days earlier. The State Fire Marshal determined the fire was arson, a case that also remains unsolved and open. Months before the fire, Amon Jamiel went to police, telling them money was missing from his store.

“He just said money was repeatedly being taken from the store, no signs of forced entry. He suspected someone may have had a key,” the Warren Police Chief at the time, Robert Pare told Jack White. “Hundreds of dollars and maybe even thousands of dollars (was missing).”

Police said there were no signs of forced entry and the murder weapon was never found although investigators said they suspected a .32 caliber revolver, stolen from Jamiel's general store, was used in the shooting.

Target 12 found out that over the years, seven suspects were investigated, including Jamiel's son Mark and youngest son Jonathan.

Mo Jamiel told us he had his own suspect for decades.

“In my mind, I have an idea of who did it, based on his character and his meanness. Somebody put 11 bullets (in my brother),” he said sharply. “So, they had to reload and do it again. It had to be someone who was really bitter.”

Lt. Brule tells us there are several boxes of evidence from the murder that he combs through about once a month.

“I'm just hoping a fresh set of eyes will help,” the officer said. “As far as I'm concerned, I'm going into it with an open approach and everyone's a suspect.”

Mo Jamiel told Target 12 he was skeptical the murder would ever be solved.

“It's still unsolved. They're never going to find out. So, you just wait your time, hoping some day something would happen.”

Jamiel passed away two weeks after relaying his hope to Target 12.

Last month, Jonathan Jamiel put 33 Miller Street up for sale.

We reached out to Jonathan and Mark Jamiel but neither one got back to Target 12. The grand jury convened in 1979 without returning indictments. The case was re-opened by Warren police in 1984 and a grand jury convened in 1986 to examine the murder but again did not return indictments.

Lieutenant Brule tells us he and his department will continue to scrutinize the evidence, hoping for a break and he believes it is still possible that guilt will provoke the suspect to come forward.

Send your news tips to Walt Buteau at wbuteau@wpri.com and f ollow Walt on Twitter: @wbuteau